Thiago Silva: “I want to fight the best fighters of my division. It doesn’t matter who it’s gonna be.”

UFC light heavyweight Thiago Silva picked up his first win since 2009 over the weekend with a third-round submission of Stanislav Nedkov at UFC on Fuel 6. The bout also marked the first time since 2009 Silva had fought more than once in a year due to injury issues and a yearlong suspension for steroid use.

With Silva finally healthy and feeling recharged after leaving American Top Team to join the Blackzilian camp, the 29-year old finisher thinks his triumph over Nedkov is a sign of things to come in 2013 and wants to prove such as soon as possible.

“It was a hard fight. Nedkov is a tough fighter. In the second round he got me with a good punch. I really felt it. He got me on the right spot. I didn’t feel my legs for a couple seconds but I could see everything that was going on,” began Silva when asked about his encounter with the previously unbeaten Bulgarian in an interview with Fuel TV.

Silva also elaborated on the sequence of events setting up the Arm-Triangle Choke he finished Nedkov with, stating he saw a sense of defeat in his opponent’s eyes before deciding to shoot in for the takedown.

With a triumph in tow, the 15-3 Silva isn’t looking to string together a series of easy wins but rather get back into the mix by battling Top 10 foes.

“I want to fight the best fighters of my division. It doesn’t matter who it’s gonna be. I just want the tough guys,” explained Silva. “I want to be a champion one day. I want the title, and I’m working hard for it.”

Silva needs to watch the tape. He is too limited to seriously take on a top guy. It is like the sport is evolving around him and he is standing still…swinging wildly with his chin out. His standup is very limited and he seems to want to define himself as a striker.

As has been said here already, he needs to use his decent takedowns, and above average ground and pound to his advantage. Getting outstruck by a wrestler is no way for a “striker” to fight.

I agree, he will not reach his goals the way he is fighting right now. Not only did his body change tremendously after his roid bust + his injury, he may also have lost some on the mental part of the game. He looked bad against Gustaffson, which can happen, but until the finish he looked bad against Nedkov too, and Nedkov is by no means a top contender. Even before he was no match for Machida and Evans. Now? No..

I may be confusing fighters here, which is easy to do when so many have close to the same name. But is he the one that got tapped out by guillotine after shooting while tired, and blamed his corner for saying takedown, and he said he should of stood up? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Hes the one who tried to pass dog piss as his own. Now Im not a pro fighter , but I have faked drug test. So aIm not hating on him for that. But how the hell are you gona use animal urine? Your tellin me he could not find 1 guy in his camp to donate a lil water? Jesus must not have been to friendly.lol